Inuyasha - The Next Act
by megumibex
Summary: Set 13 years after the Final Act. Izayoi is the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome, one quarter demon. She dreams of becoming an expert demon slayer/exorcist like her parents. The story of her adventures in feudal Japan with her friends: Ame, Aoi, Ushio (Sango and Miroku's kids), Tsukuyomi, Kako (Ayame and Koga's kids) and Matsukaze (A demon she meets in the forest one day).
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I'm Izayoi, thirteen years old. I live in Jikan Village, with my parents. My dad runs a demon extermination business with his friend Miroku and his wife, my mum is a priestess at our local shrine. I forgot to mention, I'm the only granddaughter of Toga, Lord of the western lands and great dog demon. That makes me one quarter demon. It's normally impossible to tell me apart from an ordinary human but once a month, my demon powers will resurface. My eyes turn golden and my usually black hair turns whiter than Lady Kaede's. Everyone in the village is generally very respectful of my appearance but it still makes me feel awkward, looking so different from everyone. For this reason I am currently gathering herbs for my mother in the Forest of No Return. Don't let the name scare you, aside from the odd centipede demon and interdimensional portal, it's just another forest. Even so I was careful to be wary of demons. My parents had taught me self defense techniques and I always carried around a bow and arrows with me.

I was gathering bamboo when I heard a strange sound. I pulled out my bow and stood very still. I realised it was the cries of someone in pain and violent struggling. I was about to rush in the direction of the noise when I heard men laughing.

"Look at that, we actually caught one!" I edged in the direction of the voices and hid in a bush. There were three men surrounding what I guess was whatever they had caught.

"Please let me go, I wasn't looking for trouble" Came a cry from their direction.

"Don't lie, brat!" Said one of the men, kicking what I now realised, was a teenaged boy. Without even thinking, I rushed out into the clearing.

"Leave him alone!" I yelled. The men seemed much more scared than I would have expected. Then I realised that I did not look like a normal thirteen year old girl, that day.

"Another demon!"

"Get out of our forest! You demon!" yelled the men. Their words were aggressive, but they clearly weren't prepared to deal with an opponent they hadn't trapped in a aura-draining net.

"Leave this forest" I growled. The men glanced down at the boy in the net, then back at me, then ran out of the clearing.

"You'll be sorry, demon!"

"There's a half demon in the next village who eats your kind for breakfast!"

I sighed and brushed my snow white hair out of my eyes. Now the men had gone, I could get a good look at the boy. He had short black hair and tanned skin but the thing that drew my attention first was the vast pair of black wings on his back.

"Are you a tengu?" I asked. He nodded and I realised it was probably rude to question him before rescuing him from the net. It was a pain untangling it from his feathers, but he was soon free.

"Thank you" He said simply, seemingly still completely drained.

"It's alright"

"You look like a demon, but I can sense something different about you"

"I'm only a quarter demon" I explained, worried of how he would react. Outsiders from the village often became cruel when the found out about me and my father's demon blood. He looked confused.

"I didn't know that was a thing." He said.

"Well it doesn't happen much, but my grandfather was a dog demon" He nodded thoughtfully.

"I'm guessing you're not from here?" I said, I had never heard of any tengu in our area.

"That's right, I left home after a fight with my parents and ran straight into trouble"

"Humans can be pretty dangerous if they catch you by surprise." I said.

"Even so, I ask that you keep this secret, for the protection of my image, if nothing else" He gave me a lopsided smile.

"Ok" I said, getting ready to continue my herb gathering.

"I'm Matsukaze, by the way"

"Izayoi" I replied. He stood up haphazardly and I realised I may have been grossly underestimating the effects of the aura-draining net.

"Why don't you come back to my village? You can rest there, without worrying of being attacked again." I said. He seemed unsure.

"Me? In a human village?" I understood his apprehension.

"My father's half demon and is one of the most well liked people in the village"

"Are you sure it will be ok?" For a second, I doubted myself. Would everyone really be ok with me bringing a random demon they didn't even know into the village? When I saw how weak he looked, and how he could barely stand, I decided I would find a way to smooth things other. Anyway, it's not like the villagers weren't used to seeing demons every once in awhile, my uncle, Sesshomaru and Shippo, a friend of my parents, visited the village often and while they attracted some attention, everyone seemed to accept it as pretty normal.

I helped him back to the village and despite my earlier confidence, I decided it was probably best to avoid the busier parts of the village, for his sake as much as mine. I took him to Lady Kaede's house and luckily, she was home. She didn't seem overly surprised when she saw us.

"Izayoi, what have you brought home with you today?" she asked, in her own part playful, mostly accusatory kind of way.

"This boy was attacked by some humans using a cursed net, is there anything you can do to help him" I asked.

"A cursed net, you say?" She said, examining him closer. "I'm afraid the only thing that can help him is rest. Don't tell me, you've offered him refuge in our village?" I nodded and she smiled. "You grow more like your mother everyday". Then, she handed me a large blanket "use this to cover his wings, I'm sure he doesn't want to attract unnecessary attention."

I led him to my home, for the first time in me life that it was my appearance that was drawing people's stares, and not his. My parents weren't home. I tucked him into bed and told him I was just going to find my mother and would be right back.

* * *

 _Name - Izayoi Higurashi_

 _Age - 13_

 _Family - Kagome Higurashi (mother), Inuyasha (father), Sota (maternal uncle), Sesshomaru (paternal uncle), Mama Higurashi (maternal grandmother), Papa Higurashi (father), Grandpa higurashi (maternal great-grandfather), Toga (paternal grandfather), Izayoi (paternal grandmother)_

 _Likes - Archery, Walks in the forest_

 _Dislikes - Being stared at_

 _Dream - To explore the world and experience many things._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I ran through the village as fast as I could, which was pretty fast, considering I was at that time in my demonic form. When I got to the shrine, Lady Rin was there and I urgently gave her the herbs I had collected and asked her where my mother was.

"Lady Kagome is just inside, are you ok?" I smiled at Rin.

"I'm fine, I just need to tell my mum something"

"Ok, thanks for fetching the herbs!" She shouted as I ran inside.

"Mum!" I yelled as I ran through the door.

"Izayoi? What's wrong? Did something wrong?" She ran to meet me and raised her voice alarmingly.

"I met a demon in the forest, and he was injured so I invited him to stay with us, is that alright?" She looked a little concerned at first but then shook her head and smiled.

"If you think he's trustworthy, I trust your judgement" She paused and added "but you should probably go tell your father too"

"Ok" I said and ran back out the door, waved goodbye to Rin and rushed down the stone steps that led to the shrine.

I would have gone straight back to the house to check on Matsukaze, but on the way I ran into Ame, Aoi and Ushio. Ame grabbed me by the arm as I tried to sneak past.

"Hey Izayoi, where are you off to? I thought you wanted to spend all day in the forest being all aloof and angsty?" Despite her accusatory words, she seemed quite happy to see me. She was the oldest of the three siblings and, in my view, very very pretty. She had long dark hair which she decorated with a plain white ribbon. Despite her simple green kimono and beat up sandals, I thought she looked like a princess. She was 2 years older than me and was already training as a demon slayer with her mother.

"I was going to do that but I met a boy in the forest who needed help, so I brought him to the village." I kept it to myself that he was a demon. Despite all her good points, Ame was a terrible gossip and I was worried if the whole village found out about Matsukaze it would cause problems.

"A boy? Is he ok?" Asked Aoi, Ame's younger twin sister who looked identical to her accept she had cut her hair short and always dressed in pale pink and yellow kimono's which made her look considerably younger than her actual age.

"Yeah, I just need to find my dad, do you know whether he's back yet?"

"Yeah he's at our house, let's go find him" Ame grinned before skipping off towards their house. Ushio and Aoi and I sheepishly followed.

"Uncle inuyasha! Izayoi was looking for you" Ame yelled and when I reached the doorway, I witnessed a scene of Ame frantically try to grab at my father's doggy ears.

"Aren't you getting a little old for these games" My dad shouted but she didn't relent.

"Come on, just for old time's sake, they're so fluffy!" Aoi joined her and he couldn't keep the two of them at bay at the same time, so he was forced to give in. While this was happening Miroku and Sango welcomed me inside and tried their best not to laugh at Inuyasha's predicament.

"Is something wrong?" Sango asked, getting down to business.

"I came to tell dad, I met a boy in the forest who had been attacked and have invited him to stay until he feels better. Is that alright?" I explain. My dad shrugs.

"I don't see why not" He said and Miroku looked concerned.

"Some men in the next town came and told us they were attacked by a yokai in that forest today, maybe we should look into it?" "Uh… Maybe you should just forget about that, I don't think they'll be bothered by that demon again any time soon" I said.

"What do you mean by that?" Asked Sango, looking serious until my dad started grinning.

"Ha! I told you those hunters wouldn't know a troublesome demon if it hit them in the face" He laughed at Sango, ruffling my hair. We said goodbye to Miroku and his family, and dad and I walked home. Halfway there he started talking more seriously.

"Seriously though, don't go messing with those hunters again. Even when you're in your demon form, you can never be too careful."

"Yes dad" I said.

"Hey, don't luck so down. I'm very proud of you. You did a good thing today."

"Hey dad?"

"What is it?"

"When can I learn to fight?"

"Uh… You really want to do that?"

"Yeah! I want to be like you and mum!"

"Well I suppose you're probably old enough now, but I wouldn't know where to start. I'm a terrible teacher."

"I don't mind"

"Ok then, we can start tomorrow if you'd like?"

"Yay"

Then we turned to corner to our house. Mum was already home when we raced to the door.

"Shush!" She hissed angrily. "The kid's exhausted. Give him some peace, would ya!" When we were inside, this was confirmed. Matsukaze was fast asleep right where I left him. Then my mother's attention was turned on me.

"But he had the strength to tell me all about what happened this afternoon, young lady. I can't believe you would get involved in something so dangerous!"

"They were only humans, mum."

"That doesn't mean you can just throw yourself into danger around them, especially when they're in a group like that, back me up Inuyasha?"

"Your mother's right kiddo"

"Uhhh… Good morning…" groaned Matsukaze.

"Um, it's not morning, kid" My dad laughed.

"Huh? When is it?"

"We're just having dinner, sweetie. Do you feel up to eating something?" My mother smiled.

"Yes please! I'm feeling much better, thank you! I promise to be out of your hair soon" He replied, happily accepting a bowl of rice.

"You're welcome to stay as long as you like" my mother said, with the look of a woman who has decided she wants to adopt a child.

"Don't go running off into danger so soon, kid. This is a pretty safe area these days, but you can still run into trouble every once in awhile."

"Thank you both very much, but I should probably head home now, my parents will be worried." He said with a smile that seemed somewhat disingenuous to me.

"I fought you had ran away from home." He seemed a little taken aback but recovered quickly.

"It was a stupid fight, I miss them already"

My mother tried to convince him to stay the night but he told her he would be fine and that tengus often fly around at night, so it wasn't a big deal. My dad told him to watch out next time he was near a human village and just like that, he was gone. I had never seen a tengu fly before and I waved to him as he flew over the forest and out of my view.

* * *

 _Name - Ame_

 _Age - 15_

 _Family - Aoi (younger twin sister), Ushio (younger brother), Sango (mother), Miroku (father), Kohaku (maternal uncle), Shako (maternal great-grandfather), Miyastsu (paternal great-grandfather)_

 _Likes - Kicking ass, being admired, Fluffy things_

 _Dislikes - being alone or ignored_

 _Dream - To be a strong demon slayer_


End file.
